I havnt had a chance to test it, but I figured they were not going to fix that this year.

They are busy boasting good review scores.

Really ?? All the reviews I've read weren't saying they knocked it out of the park with 18. In fact, one review says they've taken a step back, and are allowing NBA Live to close the gap.

Have you gone on metacritic? The average reviewer score is 8.0, the average user score is 1.6.

Do you follow them on Facebook? In light of almost every single comment (thousands) of people being pissed about the game, it's a constant barrage of "look how great we are" posts and constant posts about reviews they have gotten (blah blah rated 2K18 a 9 out of 10, the most realistic basketball experience to date blah blah).

It's the ultimate slap in the face to those users who rate this game under a 2, the people by the thousands that rip the game for bad layup mechanics, the VC grab, and other gameplay issues.

I have not read one "professional review" that actually calls the game out for its real flaws. I've seen VC talked about, but it's a quick brush by. I have read nothing about the skating of the players, the dead atmosphere and poor unrealistic lighting, seen nothing really in those reviews about the poor layup mechanics, nor the worst 1 on 1 defense in 2K history.

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

I've seen some reviews that acknowledge gameplay issues, but most of them - especially the ones that have awarded scores of 8s and 9s - tend to read more like promotional breakdowns of all the features, rather than truly reviewing the product and properly identifying the good and the bad. A lot of problems are skimmed over, or not even mentioned. As Dee said, those are the reviews that the social media accounts are happily touting.

Fair enough, of course. No one is going to promote or celebrate a bad review, after all. But given the backlash and general sense of dissatisfaction, it comes across as tone-deaf at best, smug at worst.

Well, Game Informer have named it as Sports Game of the Year for the second year running. I guess it speaks to the lack of options in that regard, but still.

As for the 1.6 scores, I'd agree that maybe they're a bit too harsh overall, and I'd probably rate the game higher (indeed I did, in the topic asking how we'd all rate NBA 2K18). At the same time though, for anyone who feels the experience has been completely ruined by a combination of the flaws, grinding, and VC gouging...well, a really low score is a fair call. Too often we rely on a four or five point scale to numerically rate video games, and if you utterly hate a game, it seems silly to still rate it a 5 or 6.

Since I started co-hosting the NLSC Podcast, I've usually given my initial review and ongoing thoughts about the latest releases there, in audio format. I've intended to do some written reviews again the past couple of years, but they've been pushed back with the other content I do, and it ends up being too late.

In fact, a review of theses 2 games is an annual work in background. There's the release, the biggest part of the work, the first impressions, the comparison between the game and editor's promises.After the releases, there's also the patches ; 2K showed us they could break a game few weeks after a good release (2K16/2K17). At this point on 2K18, 2K broke nothing since the release, but they also simply ignore the subject of this thread and the problem of 1on1 on ball defense.

Dee, I saw this youtube video and immediately thought about your post about the hip blowby. Let me know if this fixes your problem. I'm going to try it tonight in my online games and hope it makes me a better defender. I didn't even realize there were so many defensive options on and off ball.

Intense-D: Press and hold LT when in front of dribbler.Crowd the Dribbler: Press and hold LT when near the dribbler.Fast Shuffle: Press and hold LT + RT, move Left Stick in any direction.Hands Up Defense: Move and hold Right Stick in any direction.Shot Contest: Move and hold Right Stick in any direction when near shooter (during shot).Vertical Contest: Move and hold Left Stick away from the shooter and press Y.Swat Block: Hold RT and press Y.Take Charge: Press and hold B.Flop: While in take charge, release B, press B.Double Team: Press and hold LB.Icon Double Team: Press LB, press and hold the action button of desired double teamer.

JWL3 wrote:Dee, I saw this youtube video and immediately thought about your post about the hip blowby. Let me know if this fixes your problem. I'm going to try it tonight in my online games and hope it makes me a better defender. I didn't even realize there were so many defensive options on and off ball.

Intense-D: Press and hold LT when in front of dribbler.Crowd the Dribbler: Press and hold LT when near the dribbler.Fast Shuffle: Press and hold LT + RT, move Left Stick in any direction.Hands Up Defense: Move and hold Right Stick in any direction.Shot Contest: Move and hold Right Stick in any direction when near shooter (during shot).Vertical Contest: Move and hold Left Stick away from the shooter and press Y.Swat Block: Hold RT and press Y.Take Charge: Press and hold B.Flop: While in take charge, release B, press B.Double Team: Press and hold LB.Icon Double Team: Press LB, press and hold the action button of desired double teamer.

But this does nothing to curve how easy it is to blow by the CPU. These are options for you to improve your defense individually.

The contest is, that any time you want to blow by a CPU player, you can. And, I can guarantee that the hip animation is still triggered quite easy on a human even with the buttons being used that you mentioned.

But again, this does nothing to help the AI one on one defense.

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

True, it doesn't help the AI play better defense. What you experience on offense is very true when playing against another human also: you can blow past them quite easily just by turboing. Many times, I've had opposing players blow by me (with me in good defensive position) with me helpless to stop them. This tip, if it works, will at least allow me to defend against it.

JWL3 wrote:True, it doesn't help the AI play better defense. What you experience on offense is very true when playing against another human also: you can blow past them quite easily just by turboing. Many times, I've had opposing players blow by me (with me in good defensive position) with me helpless to stop them. This tip, if it works, will at least allow me to defend against it.

Thanks for looking out, though.

I'm really hoping that 2K19 is better all around. All the promises we received about smarter AI, better defense, etc... It was all lies.

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

While is words were promising, the mechanics didn't work out that way. It made it so you can get by anybody with anybody, making elite defenders irrelevant, and just overall making all the players blend in together.

The defense overall in the game is still broken, but the one on one defense is downright unacceptable.

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

Again, catering towards online as the characters playing aren't based off real people. That's really what will be 2K's demise... I remember when they were pushing the limits for simulation basketball games. Every year it seems to be getting worse as they push more and more for a E-Sports ready game. Shit don't they already have a E-Sports league in the works?

As bad as 2K18 regressed, I could never go back to 2K17 because of the graphics. I've been looking back at some gameplay videos of 2K17 and I often wonder how I even found it acceptable. Apart from the stadium lighting and oversized heads in 2K18, I find it a lot better. Maybe that's why I prefer it over 2K17.

PeacemanNOT wrote:Again, catering towards online as the characters playing aren't based off real people. That's really what will be 2K's demise... I remember when they were pushing the limits for simulation basketball games. Every year it seems to be getting worse as they push more and more for a E-Sports ready game. Shit don't they already have a E-Sports league in the works?

As bad as 2K18 regressed, I could never go back to 2K17 because of the graphics. I've been looking back at some gameplay videos of 2K17 and I often wonder how I even found it acceptable. Apart from the stadium lighting and oversized heads in 2K18, I find it a lot better. Maybe that's why I prefer it over 2K17.

Agreed on E-Sports, they are focused on all the wrong things.

And yeah, I think you have different views on graphics. And by the way, totally get that. It's about preferences, also that's your target for modding. You do a damn good job of modding the art aspects of the games.

I just feel like the 2K engineers/production have a disconnect with how the game is actually played. Certain things they added/worked on, and the items they neglected, it what makes me think that.

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody - somewhere - was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

sticky-fingers wrote:I dont play in MyGM, but in MyLeague, you can change side.

If you want to stay on mygm, and if there's no way to change side ingame, you have to use cheat engine. i dont make a table, but i'm pretty sure it can be fix with CE ; i think you have to set the values for local and for the visiting team.

Hey guys, after last updates + rosters, IMO CPU defense upgrade and make more smarts decisions.

Here, CPU make zone defense vs LeBron and sagoff... This never happend with old rosters/updates. Its not perfect, i can abuse with LeBron.....buit it´s LeBron.... i cant abuse anymore with normal players.

Anyways, i need to post my HARD sliders here. For PC, u can searching by LAGOA on 2k share. (use 2.0 version) its the last and its VERY HARD!